Filmmaker Sav Rodgers grew up in Johnson County, Kansas, a more conservative area that's not known to be very open to LGBTQ individuals.
While still trying to understand himself, Rodgers came across Kevin Smith's film, "Chasing Amy." Rodgers said the movie immediately filled a void in his life.
"As an adolescence, I was lacking in community, romantic love or any of those things that I was really yearning for at that time, and 'Chasing Amy' was kind of able to fill that space and be a life raft when I desperately needed it." Rodgers said.
Being a filmmaker was never a dream or goal for Rodger, but he always had a passion for movies. Then, in 2018, Rodgers gave a TED Talk about the importance of "Chasing Amy" to young LGBTQ people, and especially to his own sense of identity.
After the TED Talk, Rodgers began receiving attention from the actors and crew behind "Chasing Amy," including Smith himself. Rodgers was inspired to create his own movie discussing how the film changed the course of his life, and the complicated views that LGBTQ people hold about it.
The movie production took four and a half years, a time period in which Rodgers got engaged and married.
Now, "Chasing Chasing Amy" is set to air at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, which is considered one of the biggest film festivals in the country. Rodgers describes the recognition as an "incredible feeling."
"I've spent about half of my filmmaking career so far working on this, so the immense relief that people have seen it and can react to it makes me feel really good," Rodgers said.
- Sav Rodgers, filmmaker, "Chasing Chasing Amy"
